Medipost’s stem cell therapy Cartistem for osteoarthritis and umbilical cord blood bank CellTree have pulled off two-digit sales growth in the first half.

According to the company’s public filing on Wednesday, Cartistem sold 8.1 billion won ($6.7 million) in the first half, a 24.7 percent increase from 6.5 billion won a year earlier.

The revenue from Cartistem accounted for 34.4 percent of the total sales in the first six months of 2019, 5.6 percentage points higher from 28.8 percent during the same period of last year.

In 2019, Cartistem sold 13.7 billion won. This year, the number is expected to go higher, considering that the first-half sales reached 8.1 billion won.

“As the accumulated output of Cartistem exceeded 13,000 vials, accrued annual sales surpassed 10 billion won, and the product finished the five-year regular follow-up trial and passed the drug reassessment, physicians and patients seem to have developed trust in the product,” an official at Medipost said.

The withdrawal of osteoarthritis gene therapy Invossa-K played a part to help raise the revenue of Cartistem, observers said. The regulator suspended the selling of Invossa in late March, after finding out that it had a labeling error in the second fluid of the therapy.

Industry watchers had predicted that Cartistem would draw attention as a replacement for the suspended Invossa in the long term. Although Cartistem is more expensive than Invossa, it has confirmed efficacy and safety in cartilage regeneration. More patients have looked for Cartistem after the Invossa debacle.

Medipost’s umbilical cord blood bank CellTree sold 11.9 billion won in the first half, up 14.7 percent year on year.

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